


Swipe Left

by KatrinaKenyon



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-04-14 10:18:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14134020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatrinaKenyon/pseuds/KatrinaKenyon
Summary: They're not together anymore, so Ava doesn't feel guilty about not deleting her Upswipe account. This is how she's trying to move on. Sara, on the other hand, doesn't really care for this app.





	1. Part I

Part I

So, it goes like this. The whole clone situation dies down a few weeks after Ava’s visit to 2213. This is mostly due to the fact that things with Mallus and all the anachronisms are getting out of hand. Also, Sara and her crew are the only ones who know her secret. Well there’s Rip, but she hasn’t had the stomach to talk to him just yet. She doesn’t know what his plan is for her and she’s not sure if she wants to know. 

In the meantime, she’s had plenty to keep her busy and keep her mind off of the whole clone situation. There seems to be twice the number of anachronisms since she’s returned from 2213 and she’s been stretched thin trying to plan missions, organize dispatch teams, and train her successor. 

She is so busy trying to keep the Time Bureau functioning that she barely has time to sleep or eat, which is fine because she has nightmares now and the memories of 2213 leave her perpetually nauseous. When she’s alone with her thoughts, she becomes fixated on the fact that she’s just a copy and that all of her memories are manufactured.

And then there’s Sara, her ex, the person that she was falling head over heels in love for. The captain of the Waverider has been scarce the last couple of weeks and she knows that it’s due to all the anachronisms and that the captain isn’t necessarily avoiding her. Sara pops in every now and then to give one of her senior agents a report or to hand over an artifact, but that’s the most she’s seen of her. 

In other news, she has decided to keep her Upswipe account active, but not because she’s ready to date again. She barely has time for anything besides work and she’s sure as hell not over Sara yet. It just gives her a little bit of confidence knowing that there are still women out there who want her.

None of them are Sara, however, or even compare to Sara, but the tiny little confidence boost she gets every time she hears the chirp of the app indicating that someone has liked her profile or sent her a message is kind of worth it. She’s hanging onto the small things these day.

Her successor, Agent Eve Striker, has been trailing behind her all week, observing her interactions and learning all of her responsibilities that she has as acting director. She finds it a little annoying. She doesn’t particularly like being followed around, but she knows that it’s a necessary evil. 

The roles are reversed at the moment and she finds herself watching Agent Striker conduct a debriefing meeting. She stands nonchalantly behind a series of filing cabinets conveniently located in front of the conference room and pretends to read a file. Agent Striker is doing well. She is confident and poised. She listens patiently to everyone’s accounts and offers praise where it’s earned and constructive criticism where it’s needed.

Ava nods her head in approval, pleased with Striker’s progress.

“Are you spying on your own employees?” A voice says behind her. 

Her heart jumps in her chest, but outwardly she shows no reaction. She opens a drawer on the filing cabinet closest to her and flips through the manila folders. 

“Just the one.” She says casually.

She keeps her eyes trained on the folders in front of her and misses the way Sara arches an eyebrow at her. 

“So, who’s the girl?” Sara says playfully.

She rolls her eyes and cuts to the chase. She has no use for games today. 

“I just want to be prepared. We’re going through directors pretty fast these days. If something were to happen to me, I just want to know that the Bureau will be taken care of.”

“Ava,” Sara breaths out. Her voice is full of sympathy and its not something she can really handle right now. She wants so bad for Sara to pull her into her arms and tell her that everything is going to be okay. 

She shrugs in response. “Always be prepared.”

Sara lets out a snort of laughter. “Are you a boy scout now?”

She turns to face Sara fully, who’s eyes are now sparkling with amusement.

She feigns naivety. “Is that where that’s from?” 

Sara doesn’t respond, but she can feel Sara giving her a once over. She knows Sara can see the dark bags beneath her eyes, and the way her clothes fit loosely around her. Amusement fades from cerulean blue eyes, replaced with concern instead.

“How are you?”

She tries for causal, but knows she’s failing at it. “Oh, you know, fine.”

Sara crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the cabinet like she’s settling in for a stay. 

“Really?” Sara says, unconvinced. 

She tightens her lips in a facsimile of a smile, but she knows that her eyes are giving everything away. She feels like crying, like running and hiding from Sara and from the world. She is trying very hard to hold herself together. She will not let one question be her undoing. 

Before she can say anything, Sara is reaching for her. A warm hand covers her own and the manila folder she’s holding crinkles beneath her fingers as fights not to react to this woman’s touch. 

“Oh, honey,” Sara whispers. Her words are so soft and breathy and she is so close to Ava now. The scent of her is intoxicating. 

She sucks in a breath at the term of endearment. Her heart feels like it’s glowing and breaking at the same time. She’s fairly certain that Sara hadn’t meant to say that out loud, because the captain’s cheeks now have a light dusting of pink on them.

She backs away from Sara quickly and wishes she didn’t find embarrassed Sara so charming.

“Please practice some professionalism, Ms. Lance.” She bites out. 

“Right, sorry.”

Sara pulls away, looking disappointed and Ava can’t tell if it’s at her or herself. 

There’s a few beats of silence before Sara says, “I should go.”

“Yes, right.”

Sara gives her one last searching look, but she says nothing. She opts to stare at the folders in front of her. She tells herself not to give in, not to look. 

“I guess, I’ll see you around then.” Sara says with something like sorrow in her voice. 

She stays silent as Sara opens up a portal and disappears onto the Waverider. She closes her eyes and tries to center herself by taking a deep breath, but the chirping sound of her Upswipe app ruins the moment. 

“Perfect.”


	2. Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Less angst this time. I swear!

A week later finds Ava sitting on her office couch surround by piles of files. Its late and while everyone else has gone home for the night, she stays. Recently, there had been a series of seemingly related anachronisms. It could just be random, or maybe there was a reason that the last three anachronisms were Aztec related.

Ava didn’t want to tax her agents anymore than she already had, but she also knew her own limits. She needed to share her burden or else she was going to burn out sooner than she could afford to.

So, she called the Legends to come help her out with this problem and, lo and behold, the only person who had showed up was Sara. Sara had been popping up more often now and while part of her was thrilled, the other half of her was in turmoil. How was she supposed to get over her ex if her ex was always around?

At the moment, she’s focused on the task at hand and not on the fact that Sara looks gorgeous and is sitting on the floor, less than a foot away from her, using the coffee table as a desk.

So close, yet so far.

They had spent the last hour in relative silence, reading through different accounts of the anachronisms in question. So of course, this is when Upswipe app on her phone decides to send her an alert.

She may or may not have been talking to a pretty brunette veterinarian on the app, but it was a lot less flirting and a lot more bonding with over their recent breakups. It was a kind of support system. She ignores the chirping sound and everything is fine for a few minutes until the chirping starts up again. She ignores it and switches her phone to vibrate. Her phone vibrates, but its still noticeable enough to catch Sara’s attention.

“Aren’t you going to get that?” Sara asks curiously.

“No, it’s not important.” She says dismissively.

Blue eyes squint suspiciously at her. Sara responds with a drawn out, “O-kay.”

She gets 10 whole minutes of silence before her phone vibrates again.

She is not prepared for Sara making a grab from her phone, but she automatically reaches out and blocks said hand.

“Hey!” She says indignantly.

Sara reaches for her phone again, but the smile on the captain’s face and the mirth in those blue eyes tells her that Sara is just teasing her. She smiles back and it’s the first genuine smile she’s given anyone in a while. She bats Sara’s hand away and chuckles.

“You are being nosey, Miss Lance.”

“You could just tell me who it is,” Sara says innocently, while giving her near irresistible puppy dog eyes. She feels herself melt at the look. She can’t help but find the ex-assassin adorable when she’s like this.

If they were still together, this would have probably turned into a tickle fight and she would ended up in fits of girly giggles.

“Just turn around and get back to those files. We’re going to be here forever if we keep goofing off like this.”

She makes a turning motion with her index finger. Sara smirks at her, but does as she asks.

She almost gets the peace and quiet that she craves when the door to her office bangs open and Gary walks in talking a mile a minute. She hears snippets of something about his Aunt Stacy and a limited edition Beebo.

Sara only smiles. No doubt she finds Gary just as ridiculous as she does.

There is a heavenly smell wafting out of the takeout containers in Gary’s hands and she suddenly remembers that she hasn’t eaten a thing nearly all day. She is so distracted by these delicious scents that she doesn’t notice her phone vibrating excitedly beside her on the couch.

“Oh, Director Sharpe,” Gary says cheerfully. “Your phone is going off. Must be another Upswipe lady.” He wiggles his eyebrows at her in what she assumes is supposed to be a suggestive manner.

“Gary!” She admonishes.

Sara’s beautiful face scrunches in confusion, probably remembering her rambling speech about how she felt guilty for making the damn account in the first place.

“Upswipe? I thought you were going to get rid of that.”

She shrugs and decides to play it cool. “Well, we’re not exactly together anymore Sara.”

Sara had told her, “You are as real as I feel about you,” back in 2213, but there was a complete lack of action after that. She could only assume that Sara was just trying to comfort her then and that she had really moved on from her.

Still, she feels bad when she sees a quick flash of hurt cross Sara’s face. She should have been nicer.

“It really isn’t anything, Sara.” She says softly.

Sara looks at her for what seems like a long time and nods, apparently finding the answer she was looking for on Ava’s face.

“Director Sharpe!” Gary interrupts holding out a styrofoam container. “I brought your favorite!”

She takes the proffered contain and her stomach emits an embarrassingly loud growl. “Thanks Gary, you didn’t need to do that.”

“Of course, I did. You skipped lunch and you didn’t even eat any of the snacks I left out for you. Did you hate them? I can get other things. Maybe fruits? Grapes, you like grapes right?” Gary’s continues like that for a few moments more, pacing and wringing his hands and becoming increasingly more worried about his lack of knowledge on his director’s favorite snacks.

“Gary,” she says exasperatedly. He doesn’t even remember the clone incident and he’s still trying so hard to take care of her. He’s a good friend, even if he was infuriating at times. “It’s fine. I just…haven’t had much of an appetite lately.”

“I’m just worried you’re going to waste away into nothing.” And he is so genuinely concerned, it kind of touches her heart.

She’s almost forgotten that Sara is still in the room at this point and immediately feels self -conscious. Her ex doesn’t need to know that she can barely take care of herself these days. Sara isn’t judging her though, just staring at her with what looks like concern. She might even go as far as to say that Sara looked worried about her.

“Alright, dinner break it is then,” Sara says with some finality, while pushing some files to the side.

“We really don’t have time.” She protests.

Sara raises her eyebrows. “Says the time agent who can just portal her way back to the last hour.”

“That would be an abuse of power.” She says matter-of-factly. And yes, she’s aware that she’s being annoying and smarmy. She can’t help it. She need some kinds of defense in the face of Sara’s concern.

Sara puts some plasticware in her hands and orders her to eat in her sternest captain’s voice. She grumbles but obliges in the end. Gary did get her favorite after all.

Sometime as they are eating dinner her phone vibrates, but she doesn’t even notice it. She’s too busy shoveling forkfuls of pasta into her mouth at a pace that would suggest that she hadn’t eaten in years. She also doesn’t notice the glare Sara shoots at her phone either.

                                                                                                    0oo0oo0

The next morning, Ava sleeps in. She only has one major meeting on the docket this morning, so she doesn’t feel bad about leaving Agent Striker in charge while she catches up on her much-needed beauty rest. She wakes up feeling refreshed for once, having had a night of blessedly dreamless sleep.

Unfortunately for her, the meeting she has scheduled for later that morning was one that she had been dreading. The purpose of the meeting was to acquire more funding for the Time Bureau. That’s the nice way of putting it. What she was actually going to do was beg for money. The Bureau was in desperate need of new agents. They needed to bring in new rookies so that she could replace the agents they’ve lost and then she could promote some of the junior agents so that she could finally have more senior personnel to help run things.

Begging for money entails, getting dressed up more than she usually does, smiling more, and feigning interest in the inane stories the other board members like to waste her time with. She is technically a board member herself, but unlike the rest of the members she is the only woman and the only person under the age of 60 on it. Ava usually doesn’t have time for their sexist bullshit, but she is desperate for more funding and they are already over their annual approved budget.

Her battle armor for the day consists of skinny black dress pants that have been tailored to fit her like a glove, a silky forest green blouse, and a pair of black pumps to complete her look. She looks like a completely different Ava and she would have she felt a hundred times more comfortable wearing her navy poly-blend suit, but she knows that this is the best way to go.

The chirp of the Upswipe app actually brings a smile to her face today. She taps out a quick reply to the pretty brunette veterinarian who likes cats and traveling, if her profile is anything to go by. She’s not looking to date this woman, but the vet is fun to talk to and has listened to her rambling on and on about Sara. She slips the phone into her pants pocket and continues getting ready.

The silky green blouse stays off while she puts on her makeup and she is left standing in her dress pants and a lacy black bra. The last thing she needs is to get the mascara all over her expensive new shirt. She is nearly done applying her makeup when she hears a noise in her living room. Every muscle in her body tenses and she immediately goes on alert.

She grabs her gun from the nightstand and uses her Bureau training to sneak up on her intruder who, as it turns out, is not so much an intruder as a pesky unwanted guest.

The captain of the Waverider stands in the middle of her living room holding a large white paper bag. She lowers her gun and scowls at the woman.

“Oh god, Sara! What are you doing here?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

Sara opens her mouth to speak and then abruptly closes it, looking a little bit like a fish out of water. It’s then she remembers that she’s only in her bra and pants. Rather than turn away, Sara gives her a thorough once over that is impossible to miss.

“You look good.” Sara says and she can she those blue eyes darken. She knows that look very well. It’s a look that says, ‘I want you. I want to take you to pieces over and over again.’ And fuck if she doesn’t want that to happen.

Her cheeks heat up at that look and she hurries to cross her arms over her chest attempting to cover up the current focus of Sara’s attention. She would smack that vaguely dirty smirk off of Sara’s face if she wasn’t so concerned with covering up her skin.

“Would you turn around.” It’s less of a request and more of a demand. “I’m nearly naked.

“Ava, I have seen you completely naked before.” Sara says incredulously. Note that the captain has not actually turned around yet. “Many, many times might I add.”

“When we were dating,” Ava points out. “This is different. I am no longer your girlfriend. I am your…colleague now.”

She can see Sara visibly wince at that, but this seems to do the trick. Sara turns around, but does so reluctantly.

“I brought breakfast, by the way. Gary called me this morning. He just wanted to make sure you were being fed since he couldn’t do it himself.”

“Of course, he did. You know where the kitchen is,” she says as she rushes off to her bedroom to put away her gun and put on a shirt.

When her shirt is all buttoned up and tucked in, she runs a curling iron through her hair to give it some loose, artfully styled curls. She appraises herself in the mirror when she’s done. She looks good, she has to admit, and it gives her a little confidence boost.

She isn’t really surprised to find that Sara has made herself at home when she gets to the kitchen. The table in her breakfast nook has been set and the plates are adorned with fluffy Belgium waffles with strawberries and blue berries on top.

“My favorite,” she says out loud.

“I know,” Sara says looking up from pouring orange juice into a glass. The captain must like what she sees because she doesn’t even notice when the glass overflows and juice spills onto the table.

“Sara, the juice.”

Sara finally notices the small puddle of juice and tips the carton back to its upright position.

“Uh, my bad.”

“Are you okay?” She asks. Sara does look a little dazed.

Sara runs a hand through her hair distractedly and answers, “Yeah. Yeah, of course.” A pause and then, “You look good Ava.”

She tries not to react to Sara’s words or looks, but she can still feel a blush creeping up her cheeks. She turns grab a dish cloth for the spill, but she can still feel Sara’s eyes on her.

“Thanks. I’ve got a meeting with the board this morning,” she says by way of explanation.

“Oh, right. The board of sexist old white men.”

She snorts and throws the dish towel at Sara. “That’s certainly an apt description.”

Her phone chirps in her pocket and she is reminded that she was talking to the brunette veterinarian before Sara arrived. While Sara is distracted with cleaning up her spill, she opens the Upswipe app and sends a quick message.

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=o7263t)

She doesn’t notice her lips curve up into a small smile as she reads the vet’s responses, but Sara does and when she looks up again Sara is vigorously wiping the table down with a scowl on her face.

“You’re going to wear a hole in the table, Sara.”

“Right. Sorry.” When Sara looks at her again, her gaze is scrutinizing. “Still using that app, I see.”

She waves a hand dismissively, not wanting to get into this. “I told you, its nothing.”

Sara huffs. “If you say so.”

She sounds so sullen that Ava almost believes that the captain might actually be jealous. Almost. Sara can’t possibly still want her knowing what they know now.

Still, she can’t stop the little spark of hope forming. Maybe Sara still wanted her.


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Having fun with images this week. Still working on writing the next chapter, but hopefully I'll get that done and posted soon. Thanks everyone for reading. Enjoy!

Part III

           

 

     

 

         

 

            


	4. Part IIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the purposes of this story, most of the events of the last episode (3x17) did not happen, however, Ava does actually have that talk with Rip. Enjoy!

She finally confronts Rip about 2213 and it’s even worse than she imagined. Rip tells her that there were eleven Avas before her, that when one died he just replaced that Ava with a new one. He also told her she was extraordinary, but how could that be true when he treated them like they were disposable.

After Rip is done telling her all this, she fires him because he is in direct violation of so many Time Bureau rules and honestly, she can’t stand the sight of him anymore. She stumbles out of his office and somehow finds herself stumbling through a portal and into an empty corridor on the Waverider. It’s just a reflex that she ends up here. Not long ago, if something was troubling her, she would’ve used her time currier to bring her straight to Sara.

She just needs a moment to pull herself together. Or that’s what she tells herself.

She leans against the steel wall of the Waverider to try and steady herself, but her hands are shaking now and she feels sick to her stomach with the information she now possesses. She takes a deep breath and then another, but she’s not sure if its going to be enough to stave off the panic attack that will surely come.

The doors to the corridor slide open, but she doesn’t hear them.

“Hey Ava, Gideon said…” Sara trails off.

And of course, it’s Sara that has to be the one to find her like this. So broken and weak. She looks at the captain with eyes, wide and shining with unshed tears. She tries to keep her face blank, but she knows that she can’t hide how scared and confused she feels right now.

“Ava, what’s wrong?”

What’s wrong is she feels like her whole world is coming apart, even more so than before her visit to 2213. She had thought that maybe she was different than those other Avas, but no, she was the 12th Agent Sharpe.

When Sara reaches a hand out to her, she shakes her head no and backs up so that she is pressed up against the metal wall behind her. A rivet digs into her back, but it barely registers with her.

“I fired Rip,” she blurts out because it’s the easiest thing to say.

“Okay,” Sara says cautiously. The captain takes a slow step forward as if she is attempting to approach an injured animal.

She takes a calming breath and says again in a steadier voice. “I fired Rip.”

She can feel her composure coming back to her. She wills her heart to harden and then stands straighter and assumes her Director Sharpe persona. “He was in violation of Title X, subsection 23. He…”

He took 12 clones from 2213 and used them like little worker drones.

Her composure crumbles just as quickly as it had appeared.

“He…” She can’t get the next word out. She chokes on a sob instead and puts a hand over her mouth like she can stop the rest from coming. A fat tear rolls down her cheek and clings to her jaw line before falling and splashing on her navy blazer.

Sara’s impossibly blue eyes are wide with shock. Ava may have shed a tear or two in front of the Sara before because she was a little sappy sometimes, but she has never full on cried in front of the ex-assassin.

“He said we were replaceable,” she whispers shakily.

She puts her arms around herself, like she can hold everything in with just sheer will, but then before she knows it, there are arms around her pulling her closer to the captain. She lets herself be swept up into the embrace. Sara rubs soothing circles on her back and murmurs platitudes that she doesn’t really hear in her ear. She sobs like a baby into the crook of Sara’s neck as her body shakes with each strangled cry.

Eventually, the sobbing stops and she’s not sure how long they have been standing in that corridor holding onto each other.

“Eleven,” she says in between ragged breaths. “There were eleven Avas at the Time Bureau before me.”

Sara sucks in a breath sharply but doesn’t say anything just yet. A hand begins stroking her hair and she takes that as her cue to continue.

“It’s true. I’m not different. I am just like them.”

Sara steps back and puts her hands on her shoulders holding her in place.

“Don’t say that.” Sara says with desperation coloring her voice. “You are special.”

“I’m a clone,” she spits out bitterly. “I’m just another cog in the machine.”

“You’re still a person, even if you and the others are genetically identical. Every single one of those clones is a person, Ava. Some lab may have made you, but that doesn’t give them the right to decide who you are and what you do with your life. You are special. You are stronger than you know. You are clever, and brave, and kind.”

Sara places a hand over her heart and the gesture is not lost on her.

“You are you, regardless of where you came from.”

Her vision is blurry and her tongue feels heavy, so she just nods. It makes her feel a little better, but she can’t get over the fact that Rip just used them like they were things. Break one and replace it with another. He probably didn’t care about her or those other Avas. He obviously didn’t see them as human.

She starts to think about the other Avas in 2213. They are made, sold, and bought like cattle. No, like cars. There were different models and they didn’t seem to really have any free will. She wondered if they were happy, if they felt trapped and dreamed of a different life. Every Ava in 2213 was treated like they were an object to be owned. That was supposed to be her life. The thought makes her nauseous and this time she can’t hold it back.

She drops to her hands and knees and proceeds to vomit on the floor. Her stomach continues to churn and she just manages to make it to the bathroom for the next wave. Sara stays by her side and holds her hair back. The rest of the evening passes in a blur. She somehow manages to get into pajamas and then she’s in bed, being held by Sara as she clings to the woman and cries some more.

She cries and cries and cries. For herself, for the eleven Avas before her that no one cared about, and for the rest of the Avas that would never know freedom like she has.

In the morning, or what she assumes is the morning, she quietly puts back on her navy suit. She pretends that Sara is still asleep and not watching her soundlessly from the bed behind her. She opens a portal into the Time bureau and without looking back, steps off the Waverider.

Life has to go on. There’s the Time Bureau to run, and all those anachronisms, and she still needs to figure out how to stop Mallus. She realizes that she’s going to have to put aside freaking out about being a clone for a while because there is a world to save and people who depend on her.

Amazingly, she finds that even after knowing everything she knows now, she still wants to live the life she’s been living. She was happy before she knew and she can be happy again. She is never going back to 2213. Her life is here and she’s going to fight for it. She’s going to live the life she wants to live. And dammit, she’s going to find a way to be with Sara again. She just needs some time.

She slides her phone out of her blazer pocket and sends a text to TheLadyVet13, who she has taken to addressing by her real name these days, Andrea Vásquez. She may need help coming up with a game plan for getting Sara back.

 

  


	5. Part V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy chapter 5! Also, shot-out to my beta, science_weirdo!

**Part V**

Ava finds herself sitting across from Andrea (aka TheLadyVet13) at a table outside a little café located downtown. She’s exhausted from crying all night as well as from working all day, so this caffeine refill could not have come at a better time. It’s sunny out, but it’s cool enough that she can still wear her navy blazer comfortably without feeling too warm.

The woman across from her is gorgeous. Her Upswipe profile picture does not do her justice. Andrea is petite little thing, with dark eyes and dark hair that falls in waves to her shoulders. She’s wearing a lavender colored blazer over an ivory blouse with dark blue slacks. She feels underdressed in comparison, still wearing her standard-issue Time Bureau pantsuit. She just didn’t have the time to change and she figured the vet wouldn’t mind.

They spend the first 15 minutes talking a little about themselves, since it’s the first time they’ve meet in person, but then she decides to take the plunge. She takes a deep breath and dives right into the heart of the matter.

“So, I didn’t exactly ask you here just for coffee.”

“You don’t say?” Andrea drawls, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

She looks down and puts a hand on her neck to play with the hair at the nape of her neck.

“Right, that was probably obvious.”

Andrea gives her a small smile. “Only a little bit. I mean, you did just spend the night with your ex. I’m guessing you probably want to get back with her?”

“You would be correct.” She sighs and takes a huge gulp of her coffee. She’s so focused on getting caffeine into herself, that she misses the mischievous look that passes across the vet’s face.

“Damn, and here I was thinking you could get over her by getting under me.”

Ava’s cheeks turn bright red as she sputters and chokes on her coffee. There are tears in her eyes as she struggles through a coughing fit. Andrea’s tinkling laughter filters through the background as she tries desperately to pull herself together.

“Oh my god,” she says when she finally catches her breath. “You did that on purpose!”

Andrea gives her a helpless sort of shrug. “You make it really easy. If it helps, you’re really cute when you’re flustered.”

Ava scowls at the vet. “And you are really evil. We didn’t actually sleep together, if you must know. We just cuddled.”

Andrea snorts. “That might actually be worse.”

Ava is about to reply when she gets momentarily distracted by a beeping sound coming from her blazer pocket. It’s probably another text from Sara, asking if her she was alright. She ignores this text just like she ignored the last three. She doesn’t have a clue what to say and she’s still really embarrassed about falling apart and sobbing like a baby in the ex-assassin’s arms.

Andrea arches an eyebrow in question. “Not going to get that?”

“It’s Sara,” she admits. “I may be ignoring all of her texts and calls today.”

“So, your grand plan is to just avoid her? That seems kind of counterproductive.”

“No, no it’s-. Look, I’m awful at this sort of thing and I need some advice from an objective outside party. I want to get her back, but things are confusing. She broke up with me, but I feel like I’m getting mixed signals, like maybe she wants me back too, but isn’t sure?”

She pauses and plays with the rim of her cup as she collects her thoughts. “And I’ve been going through something kind of big. Actually, I’ve had the rug ripped out from under me and it feels like nothing is real anymore, but what I do know is that I love Sara and, frankly, every day without her sucks.”

Andrea leans back in her chair and gives her a thoughtful look. “Okay, so let’s get you that girl.”

“And how do you suggest we do that?”

Her phone beeps again and Andrea gives her a pointed look. “Well, you have to actually talk to her first, but you could just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”

Her brow furrows in confusion. “And what, exactly, have I been doing?”

“Making your ex jealous by talking to mystery girls on Upswipe.” The tone of Andrea’s voice says the ‘duh’ is heavily implied.

She chuckles disbelievingly. “What? Sara is not jealous.”

“If you say so.”

And maybe there’s a little truth to what Andrea is saying.

“Okay, say I go along with this clearly foolish plan.”

Andrea points in her direction. “First of all, you can’t insult my plan before you hear it.”

“It appears I already have.” Ava says through a smug smile.

“You are the worst, you know that? What I’m trying to say is just keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe crank it up a bit.”

“How?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Mention you have a hot date to go on? Flirt with other women in front of her.”

“I can’t do that,” Ava says almost scandalized. “I’m not good at flirting or talking to human beings who do not work under me.”

“Ava, you can flirt, trust me. And you’ve got that whole ‘uptight boss bitch who’s secretly a big softy’ thing going for you.”

Her cheeks go red again.

Andrea winks at her. “Plus, you look pretty hot in those little pantsuits of yours.”

Her face is on fire at this point.

“You should see yourself right-.”

Andrea abruptly stops talking and the woman’s dark eyes grow huge and she stares at something behind her. Ava’s hand instinctively goes to her side arm, which sits in a holster beneath her blazer. When she turns in her chair to see what the vet is staring at, she instantly relaxes.

No danger here. Instead, she sees the Waverider’s captain, standing with her hands on her hips and looking pissed as hell. Sara gives her a glare that would have made lesser women cower.

She waves awkwardly. “Oh, hi Sara.”

“Don’t ‘oh, hi Sara’ me,” the ex-assassin spits out.

She is completely unprepared for the captain’s wrath. She thought Sara might be a little annoyed by her unresponsiveness, but she didn’t expect her to be livid.

“You haven’t answered a single one of my messages. I’ve been worried about you all day and you’ve just been out here having coffee with…” Sara gesticulates angrily at the woman sitting across from her.

“Andrea,” the vet supplies.

“Upswipe girl?” Sara says incredulously.

“How do you even know that?” She honestly wants to know.

Sara waves a hand at her dismissively. “Gary and I text.”

“You do?”

“That’s not the point. Answer your damn phone next time, Director Sharpe. It will save me the trip of having to come done here myself just to make sure you’re all right!”

Sara is starting to cause a bit of a scene, so she grabs Sara’s hand, which works wonders on quieting the captain down.

“Hey,” she says softly. Sara looks down at their joined hands and then back at her.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to worry you. I was just trying to process everything and I was busy with things at the Bureau.”

“But you had time for coffee,” Sara says sulkily, under her breath.

“Sara.” She says tiredly because the captain is just being ridiculous at this point.

Sara purses her lips and looks off to the side before looking back at her. “I know you don’t owe me anything-.”

“I’ll call you tonight.” She assures.

Sara bites her lip and nods. If the captain was surprised by her answer, she didn’t let it show.

“Okay.”

She knows she should look away from Sara, but she is absolutely captivated by those impossibly blue eyes and the emotion swimming in their depths. Those blue eyes move their gaze lower to her lips and she wants so badly for Sara to lean closer to her and close the distance between them.

Andrea coughs behind her and she snaps out of it. She pulls away from Sara reluctantly because she knows it’s probably the wise thing to do.

“Well, thank you for checking up on me.” She says a touch too formally. She needs a little distance between them now.

“You’re welcome, Director Sharpe.” Sara glances at Andrea and barks out “Nice to meet you.”  
And then Sara is walking away and out of sight from them.

“So that’s Sara.” Andrea says without looking away from the direction Sara had left in.

“Yeah.”

Andrea finally tears her eyes away from where Sara used to be. “I can definitely see the appeal.”

She glares at the vet in warning. “Don’t even think about it.”

Andrea laughs. “You are so gone on her."

**0oo0oo0**

Ava doesn’t get a chance to enact her plan right away. Now that the board has approved her new budget, she’s been working around the clock hiring new cadets and reorganizing the Time Bureau hierarchy. It takes a surprising amount of paperwork to get this done on top of all the interviews, and daily meetings to get everyone up to speed with all the recent updates.

It’s been over a week since meeting with Andrea and she hasn’t really had time to talk to the vet or Sara. She barely has time to sleep and when she does sleep, she’s plagued with nightmares. Her nightmares are worse than ever now and she finds herself leaving her bed more nights than not to go a few rounds in the training room at the Bureau. There seems to be an endless supply of cadets there these days.

However, there is one day where everything just gets to be too much. She is overworked and exhausted and she is being constantly bombarded with questions and requests and documents to sign. She just needs a moment to breath, just a few minutes of peace and quiet.

There is a knock on her office door, which she ignores. She puts down the file she had been reading and makes a decision. With just a few taps of her finger, the time currier is activated and a portal opens up onto the Waverider. It’s the only place she can think of where she can hide.

The Waverider’s kitchen is empty when she arrives, and this is just fine with her. She leans against the counter, arms crossed over her chest, and closes her eyes for just a second, or what she thought was just a second.

“Did you seriously fall asleep standing up?” She hears through the fog in her mind.

She blinks her eyes open slowly only to see Zari munching on a donut next to her, peering at her curiously. There’s an entire plate of donuts on the counter in front of Miss Tomaz and she can feel the ache in her stomach reminding her she hasn’t eaten all day again.

She doesn’t have the strength to draw herself up into her Director Sharpe persona. She murmurs a soft apology instead and makes no move to leave. She doesn’t have the energy to do that, even.

Zari swallows the last bite of her donut before speaking to her again. “No offense, but you don’t look so hot.”

“I don’t feel so hot.” She agrees.

Zari pushes the plate of donuts closer to her and she takes one gratefully. She’s aware of Zari observing her with a critical eye as she eats, but she ignores it in favor of stuffing her face with sugary goodness.

“When was the last time you slept Ava, like properly?”

She pauses and purses her lips together as she gives the question some thought. The last couple of days seem like a blur to her.

“I don’t remember,” she says slowly.

Zari nods, like she expected this answer. The hacker jerks her head in the direction of the what serves as the living room of the Waverider.

“Sara’s out right now. Take a nap till she comes back.”

She opens her mouth to protest but thinks better of it. She did come here to take a break, might as well make the best of it. She walks over to couch and curls up on one end. She is asleep before Zari can even utter her next words.

There is a soft grey blanket covering her when she wakes up a little while later. She is still exhausted and her eyes are struggling to open. She finds Zari sitting on the other end of the couch playing video games on mute, while Mick sits in the armchair to her left reading a book. In the distance, she can see Amaya puttering around in the kitchen. It’s all so very domestic and it gives her a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Zari is the first to notice that she is awake. She knows she must look pretty pathetic all curled up on herself, with her hair a mess, and dark circles under her eyes. She is nothing like the stern, no-nonsense agent the Legends first met.

“Go back to sleep. Sara isn’t back yet.” The hacker tells her.

She obeys and easily slips back into a deep sleep.

The next time she wakes up, she finds Sara sitting beside her with a tumbler of whiskey in her hands watching her. There is only one light on in the room. The rest of the ship is dark and seemingly empty. She has no idea how long she has slept for and she grows worried that she may have missed too much at the Bureau.

“Hi,” she says in a voice still raspy with sleep.

Sara gives her a crooked smile. “Hi.”

She can hear the fondness in Sara’s voice and tendrils of warmth seem to curl around her heart.

She sits up and rubs her hands over her face. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A while. Gary called. I let him know, you were okay.”

“Thank you.”

They sit in silence with the clinking of ice in Sara’s tumbler being the only sound to break it. The captain is idly staring off into space, allowing her to examine Sara freely. Sara’s got that haunted look in her eyes, the one that says she’s been dwelling on her past again.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, concerned.

“Nothing,” Sara says stubbornly. She knows how hard it is for Sara to talk about her past, to reveal those dark details of her life that would send most people running, but not Ava.

“Nightmare?”

Sara doesn’t say anything for a while, face impassive, but blue eyes swirling with grief.

“I haven’t dreamed about Laurel in a while.” Sara says finally.

Without thinking, she gently tugs Sara into her arms and draws her up into a hug. Sara doesn’t protest, but she puts her arms around Ava hesitantly. Ava pulls the ex-assassin tighter against her and rests her chin atop soft blonde hair. She feels Sara tremble in her arms. It must have been a pretty bad dream.

“You’re okay,” says quietly.

They stay like that for a long while with the silence wrapped around them until her phone goes off. It’s her specific ringtone for Gary. Him calling her means that she’s probably needed back at the Bureau and as much as she doesn’t want to leave, she really does need to.

“Sorry, that’s my cue.”

Sara pulls back and straightens herself out a little.

“No rest for the wicked.” Sara quips.

She snorts and rolls her eyes. “So, it would seem.”

“I’ll see you-.” She pauses. She wants to say, ‘I’ll see you later,’ but being broken up means they don’t see each other regularly anymore. She hates that. “I’ll see you around, Miss Lance.”

Her hand hovers over her time currier. She can’t stop looking at Sara, can’t leave just yet. Sara looks small and tired on the couch. She wants more than anything to stay and just hold Sara all night like she used too.

Her heart feels like its breaking again in that moment. She feels her calm façade crumble and tears prick behind her eyes. Her lower lip trembles and she feels embarrassment flare up inside of her. This is not the time for a breakup induced crying jag.

Concern instantly floods blue eyes and Sara starts moving forward off the couch.

“Ava,” Sara says somewhat alarmed by this sudden change in her mood.

She wraps her arms around herself and backs away from Sara. “Sorry,” she says, her voice cracking as she does. “Just ignore me.”

She screws her eyes shut and turns her head to the side, as if she can hide this way. She flinches when she feels hands on both her shoulders.

“Ava, look at me. What’s wrong, baby?”

“Everything.” She says. She copes with it all as best as she can, but the cracks always show.

She pulls away from Sara hastily and makes her escape through a portal. When Sara texts her later asking if she’s okay, she responds right away. She learned her lesson the first time around.

**0oo0oo0**

 Ava has always been a formidable fighter, but ever since learning she was a clone, her fighting has gotten better. Her form, the strength of her hits, her skill with weapons have all improved. She just trusts herself more. She knows her body was literally built for this. She feels stronger and more confident than she ever has before.

This may be the one good thing to have come out of this whole clone debacle. It’s been a week since her last emotional breakdown and things are better. She’s a clone and she’s trying to accept that and move on with her life. She’s finally sleeping at night and Gary keeps her on track with her meals. She actually took the weekend off to take stock of her life and begin to put herself back together. She also has Andrea to talk to now, which has been really nice.

She has begun to delegate more of her tasks, now that her new senior agents are mostly up to speed, and this has freed up her time immensely. She has actually been able to go back out into the field, which was leagues better than being stuck in her office all day doing paper work. Things were beginning to look up.

Currently, she is out on a mission with the Legends searching a castle in Medieval England for a misplaced battery powered stereo. The legends have split up to cover more ground in their search and naturally, she pairs off with Sara to investigate what appears to be a banquet hall. A long dark table that is polished to perfection sits in the middle of the room, surround by an abundance of ornately carved chairs of the same dark wood.

Their object of interest is clearly not in this room, but by the time they’ve decided to move on a small group of sword wielding guards is upon them. They stand back to back, with their batons at the ready. Ava has been itching for a fight and this is just perfect.

The combination of trusting her natural clone instincts and all those extra hours she had been putting into training instead of sleeping were really playing off. Her moves are more graceful and fluid now. It feels more like dancing than fighting.

She skillfully and swiftly takes down three of the guards before Sara gets the drop on one. She gets her hands on a mace next and spins it around expertly. She takes out another guard with it and ducks low to avoid a sword swinging towards her head. While she’s crouched down she spins and kicks the legs out from under another guard she somehow instinctively knew was standing behind her.

It continues on like this and she is truly enjoying herself. She grins a feral grin when another set of guards comes into the room. She performs a couple of unnecessary showy maneuvers. She may have backflipped off the banquet table just for the hell of it, but she is having fun for the first time in a long time.

She becomes semi-aware that Sara has stopped fighting when there’s only two guards left. The captain leans against a stone wall and lets her handle the rest of the guards. Her arms are crossed causally over her chest as she observes the Director.

When the last guard falls, Ava tosses her borrowed mace to the ground and tries to fix her shirt, which has lost a few too many buttons during the fight. Her blazer is a bit shredded as well, but it’s her white button up that’s the real problem. It flaps open to reveal a navy-blue sports bra and toned abs.

She’s panting from the exertion of the fight and still high on adrenaline. She can barely contain her goofy grin as turns to face Sara.

Sara pushes off the wall and gives her an appraising look. “You’ve gotten better, not that you weren’t impressive before.”

She shrugs nonchalantly. “I’ve been working out a little more.” Secretly, she is thrilled that she has managed to have impress the ex-assassin.

“Yeah.” She can feel Sara’s appreciative gaze from across the room as blue eyes look her up and down slowly, pausing a little longer on her abs and cleavage. “It shows.”

She chuckles kind of awkwardly and moves to lean against the wall so she can try to catch her breath. She tips her head back, inhales deeply and then exhales. When she looks back Sara is much closer.

She can see something darken in Sara’s eyes and her heart rate speeds up exponentially. That hungry expression on the captain’s face says she’s about half a second away from pouncing on her and she finds she really wouldn’t mind. Her eyes widen in surprise when Sara’s hands reach out to touch her. She swallows a gasp as warm fingers ghost across her stomach

“You’ve got a cut here,” Sara explains. And she does, but it’s such a tiny nick. She barely feels it.

“Oh,” she says absentmindedly because she really can’t think right now. Not with her heat beating so wildly and her breathing growing ragged. Heat pools low in her stomach and she knows she has to move away from Sara soon or she’s going to do something she might regret, and in the middle of a mission, no less.

It must show on her face because Sara starts to lean in a little closer, almost like she’s going to kiss her right then and there, up against the wall, but then the sound of cheers fill the banquet hall as the rest of the Legends return with the stereo in hand.

They jump apart and Ava hurries to button the last remaining button on her blazer. It doesn’t really detract from the fact that her button up shirt is a lost cause, but it does at least cover her up more. She swears Sara almost looks disappointed at this change, but she doesn’t have a chance to dwell on the thought long, not with the flurry of activity that is the Legends.

She is grateful when Gideon fabricates her a new suit when they get back to the Waverider. She is just finishing buttoning up her blazer when she walks into Sara’s office for a quick post-mission debrief. Sara offers her a drink, which she declines because she is on duty, and the captain rolls her eyes at her in fond exasperation.

They discuss the mission for a few minutes as they decide what to include in the official report for the Time Bureau. They reach a lull in the conversation and Ava feigns interest in the large decorative globe near the entrance of the captain’s office. When the silence stretches too long, she’s tempted to look back at Sara. She can feel Sara’s eyes on her and she wants to know what’s going on in the captain’s head.

“You seem to be doing better,” Sara comments.

“Sleeping and eating more have proved to be beneficial.” She admits.

Sara gives her a vaguely reproving look. “Taking care of yourself is important.”

“Well, Gary helped with the food at least and it’s been nice having another friend to talk too.”

Sara arches an eyebrow questioningly at the word friend. “You mean Upswipe girl?”

She nods. “Yes, Andrea is proving to be a good friend.”

“Friend, right.” Sara says skeptically.

“What? Upswipe is a dating app but you can use it to find friends too.” She says a little too defensively.

Sara scoffs. “That woman likes you, Ava.”

“What? No she doesn’t. Not like that. And how would you know?”

“Gary keeps me in the loop.”

“Gary should mind his own business,” she mumbles under her breath.

“Well, from what Gary says, you’re practically dating already,” Sara says almost bitterly.

“We are not,” she insists because they definitely are not. And while she wants to maybe make Sara a little jealous, she definitely doesn’t want Sara to think that she’s not even available. “I think I would know if we were dating.”

“You can be...” Sara mulls over her words and then carefully says, “You can be a little dense sometimes when it comes to flirting.”

“I am not dense,” she insists.

Sara tries and fails to suppress an amused smile. “Okay.”

She glowers at the captain and returns her attention back to the globe, giving it an experimental turn.

“You know,” Sara begins again, almost conversationally. “We should spar again soon. I’d like to see how we match up now that you’ve decided to level up.”

“Ahh, I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Her face heats up at the thought of Sara in her skimpy exercise getup, pinning her down on the training room mats.

Sara smirks apparently aware of the not so pure thoughts running through her head. “And why would that be, Miss Sharpe?”

She swallows and struggles to come up with a proper excuse. “Oh, I just meant that-.” And she is seriously floundering right now. She decides a tactical retreat is necessary and taps in the coordinates back to the Bureau on her time currier. “Actually, I forgot that I have a meeting. At the Bureau. It’s very important. I should go.”

She can hear Sara chuckling behind her as she rushes through the portal.


	6. Part VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Thank you to everyone who's still reading!

**Part VI**

Ava pours Andrea another glass of wine and then decides to top herself off as well. It’s a Friday night and she doesn’t have to go into work tomorrow, she reasons. She’s allowed to indulge and okay, maybe she’s indulged a little too much tonight, but she deserves some fun.

Andrea smiles her thanks and drinks deeply from her glass. They’re having a girl’s night in. The original plan was to have a night out on the town, but they were both so tired from work this week that they decided to order pizza, binge watch TV, and drink wine instead.

It’s much later now. The TV had been turned off 20 minutes ago and now they’re sitting on the couch chatting about everything and anything. Ava’s long legs are stretched out before her, using the coffee table as a footrest, while Andrea sits facing her with her legs tucked beneath her.

“Do you own a dress? Or a skirt or something?” The vet asks suddenly.

Ava lets her head loll to the side so she can squint at Andrea. “I feel like I should be insulted right now?”

“No, no. Wow, I did not mean it like that.”

Ava snorts. “What did you mean then?”

Andrea places a hand on her bare thigh. “I meant this,” the vet says eyeing her exposed legs.

They had decided it was going to be a pajama party tonight, so she had on a baggy t-shirt and her sleeping shorts, thus, the exposed legs.

“Mmm, still not following.” She says. Or maybe she’s just too tipsy.

“I mean, I love your suits and all, but Aves, your legs are god’s gift to mankind. You need to show these off more.”

She chuckles, self-conscious and blushing. She puts her forearm over her face in an attempt to hide her red cheeks. “Oh my god, stop.”

Andrea pulls her arm from her face and leans a little closer. “Never. You are hot, Sharpe. Deal with it.”

Her already flushed face turns another shade of red and she looks down and away from Andrea. She was never good at accepting compliments, especially when she didn’t believe them to be true.

“God, you’re so cute,” Andrea says quietly.

There’s something in the tone of Andrea’s of voice that makes her finally look up. Andrea is closer now, close enough that she can smell the wine on her breath. And then suddenly there are soft lips on hers and hands sliding in her hair.

She pulls back immediately, hands up in the air. “Umm…I…What?”

She has no words. No words for what has just happened. She just stares at the Andrea, shock written all over her face. Her friend just kissed her. Her friend, her only friend other than Gary, just kissed her.

_Oh my god, Sara was right._

In return, Andrea stares back at her in horror.

“I am so sorry, Ava.” The vet says while standing up and attempting to put more distance between them. “I’ve had too much to drink. I’m sorry. Just forget I did this.”

She knew she should say something at this point, but she just continued to stare. Her wine-addled brain just couldn’t come up with the appropriate words to fix everything.

Andrea searches her face and then nods, dark eyes growing wet and shiny. “Right, I’ll just show myself out.”

“No!” She says a little louder than she had meant to. “No, you don’t have to do that. Its late and you’re right, you’ve had a little too much to drink. We both have. Come on, let’s just put this behind us and go to bed. It’s fine, everything is fine.”

She really, really hopes everything will be fine.

   
0oo0oo0

  
She groans at the bright light emitting from the portal opening up in front of her. Of course, she would get called into work on a Saturday and as luck would have it, she was responding to a request for assistance from the Legends.

Before leaving, she had gone into her guest room to let Andrea know that a work emergency had come up, but foolishly found herself bringing up, or trying to bring up, the kiss last night.

 

_“About last night…,” she began cautiously._

_“Mmm, wine and TV was fun, but maybe less wine next time?”_

_“Okay? You don’t have anything else to say?”_

_Andrea blinked sleepily at her from the bed. “You should wear shorts more often.”_

_“That’s it?”_

_Andrea buried her head in the pillow and groaned. “Go to work Aves. Let me sleep.”_

 

She had left the vet behind telling her to sleep in and leave when she wanted to. So maybe things were going to be okay. Andrea didn’t remember and if she didn’t say anything, nothing would have to change.

Ava takes a calming breath and takes stock of herself before stepping through the portal. Her suit is perfectly neat and there’s not a hair out of place, but she feels tired and achy from a night of drinking. She’s definitely not feeling her usual 110%. She just wants to go back, crawl under the covers, and pass out for a few more hours.

The Legends are nowhere to be seen when she steps onto the bridge of the Waverider. She finds herself making her way to the captain’s office and is rewarded with the sight of Sara bent over her desk looking intently at a map.

She knocks to announce her presence, and then grimaces at the sound. She was going to need a lot more Ibuprofen to get her through this day.

At her knock, the captain tears her eyes away from the map in front of her and looks over to her. Sara observes her for a moment before tilting her head to the side and furrowing her brow in confusion.

“Are you hungover?” Sara asks, amusement coloring her voice.

“No!” She protests. A beat passes and then, “Fine, yes.”

Sara smirks at her. “Little Miss Time Bureau have a little too much to drink last night?”

She rolls her eyes. “Shut up. I’m allowed to have fun sometimes.”

“I’ve been telling you that forever.”

She fiddles with her time courier nervously. She had fun last night, maybe too much fun. In Sara’s presence she just feels guilty about the kiss. She knows realistically that she did nothing to encourage it and she shut it down right away, but she hates that the last woman she kissed isn’t Sara anymore. So, she feels guilty and on top of that she’s not good at keeping secrets around Sara. She couldn’t even keep quiet about when she made her Upswipe account.

“You were right,” she blurts out.

“Of course, I was,” Sara agrees readily. “Wait, what was I right about?

“About Andrea. She…she kissed me last night,” She admits.

“Oh.” She sees a flash of hurt in Sara’s eyes before it’s replaced by something cool and impenetrable.

“Sara, I didn’t initiate and I put an end to it as soon as it started. I don’t feel that way for her.” She desperately tries to explain. She hates that look on Sara, the look that says she’s hurt and putting all her walls up.

She walks over and hesitantly puts a hand over one of the captain’s. Sara is still unreadable, but she lets everything show. She doesn’t hide how much she wants Sara, how much she cares for her. She pleads with her eyes for the captain to believe her.

“I mean it, I don’t like her like that. As pathetic as it is, I just wanted a friend. I’ve been lonely since…well…and it was just nice to have someone to talk to. She’s just a friend Sara, that’s all.”

Something in Sara’s expression changes and Ava hopes that she was able to hear the sincerity in her voice, but what comes out of the Sara’s mouth next is not at all what she expected.

“Is that so?” The captain’s voice is low, almost seductive.

It makes her shiver involuntarily. Sara notices though and the look she gets in response makes her knees weak. She gulps and a slow predatory smile spreads across Sara’s lips.

“Yes, absolutely,” she answers honestly.

Sara takes a step forward, while she takes a step back. She should stop whatever it is that’s about to happen because something is definitely about to happen. Heat coils low in her stomach as Sara stands before her looking absolutely deadly and god, does that turn her on. She finds herself being backed up until her legs hit the captain’s desk and there’s nowhere else to go.

Hands grab her face and then lips are suddenly moving against hers and she does not resist in the slightest. She buries her hands in Sara’s silky blonde hair and slips her tongue into Sara’s mouth. The captain moans and pulls her closer, deft hands brush down her slides and come to rest on her belt buckle. Sara pulls away slightly, only so that she can start kissing her along the column of her neck until she reaches a sweet spot just below Ava’s ear.

“When she kissed you, did she make you feel like this?” Sara murmurs.

Okay, so Sara is jealous. Sara is very jealous and god help her, it was really hot. Sara chooses that moment to take advantage of her distractedness and nip at that sweet spot below her ear. She grips involuntarily at Sara’s hair, pulling on it in a way that makes the other woman moan.

She can’t help the expletive that falls past her lips, “Fuck.”

Sara pulls back at that with a dirty smirk on her pink lips. The captain looks very smug and very pleased with herself. She whimpers at the loss of contact, realizing then just how much she has missed this. She can’t believe that she had lasted so long without it.

Lips brush against the shell of her ear and the heat between her thighs grows.

“Are you wet for me, Aves?” Sara husks in her ear. “Tell me how much you want me. Tell me you need me.”

A shiver runs up her spine at the words and if possible, she finds herself even more turned on.

“Yes, fuck. Sara,” she gasps out. “I want you, I need you. Please.”

Sara grins at her, seemingly satisfied with her response. “Now be a good girl and get on the desk.”

“That’s usually my line,” she quips.

She leans backwards and hops up on the desk like she’s been ordered too. She knows that she should show some restraint and probably think about stopping what’s going to happen. It’s the middle of her work day. This is her ex. Andrea practically confessed that she liked her. There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea.

But then Sara is attacking her lips in a series of hot open-mouthed kisses, while simultaneously undoing her belt buckle. Those words of protest never make it past her lips. Her pants, along with her panties, are ceremoniously yanked off of her and she finds herself suddenly on her back with a blonde mane of hair between her legs.

Sara moans at the wetness she finds there. She knows that she is positively dripping for Sara, but can’t find it in herself to be embarrassed about how quickly the captain has worked her up. The captain kisses a pathway up her inner thigh. She feels Sara’s cool breath blowing across her wet heat and bucks involuntarily.

Sara alternates between sucking and swirling her tongue too gently around Ava’s sensitive clit at a set pace for too long, ignoring her pleas for more. It is glorious torture as Ava’s body shakes. Sweat beads along her chest and her breath comes out in ragged gasps.

She can feel her pleasure build and build as Sara takes her to the edge. She threads her fingers though the captain’s hair and pulls her closer, urging her to give her what she wants.

“Sara, please,” she whimpers canting her hips against the captain’s mouth in search of release. “I need to come.” She takes a much needed breath and says, “I need you.”

And these seem to be the magic words. Sara gives her a hard lick before dipping her strong pink tongue into her wet center. Ava tugs at Sara hair in response and then Sara is thrusting her tongue in and out of her at a rapid pace.

She screws her eyes shut and keeps her hands in Sara’s hair. She gets lost in how good Sara’s making her feel and those hungry little noises Sara makes while she’s eating her out only makes her moan more. She feels her body tense up as the ecstasy builds until she’s finally falling over the edge and into the slow long waves of her first orgasm.

But the captain isn’t done with her quite yet. Not a moment after she comes back down, Sara plunges two fingers into her wet heat without preamble, while furiously working her up into a second orgasm. Sara pulls back this time when she’s finished, which is just as well because she is just about spent.

She collapses back on the desk completely wrecked, trying to catch her breath, while Sara looks at her with wild eyes and a smug smile adorning her lips. The captain looks far too pleased with herself.

She hops off the desk and dresses herself again, feeling a little too exposed in Sara’s glass walled office. She returns to the desk to perch herself on the edge of it. Sara wastes no time placing herself between Ava’s legs so, she can kiss the Director again.

Her lips are soft and gentle against Sara’s lips this time. She is careful and attentive. She wants Sara to know how much she still cares about her. When Sara smiles against her lips, she feels like things might be okay now.

She unbuttons and unzips Sara’s pants and slips her fingers beneath the fabric, finding a pool of wetness that makes her groan. She looks at Sara in wonder before slipping two fingers inside her.

“Aves,” the captain breathes out.

Sara’s knees buckle, but Ava is strong enough to keep her upright. She strokes Sara at an achingly slow pace because she knows that that’s exactly what Sara needs right now. Sara leans against her, making little pleased noises in her ear.

“More, please,” Sara breathes out.

Ava complies, adds another finger and picks up the pace, stretching her the way she likes, while pressing her palm against her clit as she does. When she feels Sara tighten around her fingers, her time courier starts to beep, but she ignores it in favor of coaxing Sara over the edge

Sara comes with a satisfyingly loud moan and wave of arousal that coats her fingers and drips down her hand. Immediately after she pops two fingers in her mouth and sucks on them slowly, savoring the taste of Sara. Sara groans softly at the sight and makes a move forward just as Gideon’s voice interrupts them.

“Sorry to interrupt, Captain Lance, but Director Sharpe is receiving an incoming message.”

Sara pouts and she shrugs in apology. She helps fix Sara’s pants before getting up off the desk and putting a respectable distance between them.

“You can put it on the screen, Gideon.” She says.

The screen turns on to reveal a harried Agent Green.

“Director Sharpe!” Gary exclaims excitedly. “Oh, you look a little flushed? Are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine, Gary,” She says waving her hand dismissively. She sees Gary’s eyes dart to the side at Sara.

“Oh, were you two…?” He makes some weird twisting gesture with his hands. She gets the gist of what he’s asking and rolls her eyes. “Gary, what were you calling to tell me about?”

“Oh, right. Your presence is being requested by the board.”

She furrows her brow in confusion. She doesn’t remember having a meeting scheduled for today.

“I don’t think you’re going to get fired, if you’re worried about that,” Gary says helpfully.

“I was not worried, but now I am. So, thank you for that.”

Gary winces. “Sorry. Anyways, the board is due here in an hour. See you soon?”

She turns back to Sara once the screen goes black. “It seems that I’m needed back at the Bureau.”

Sara reaches out and gives her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “You going to be okay?”

She shrugs. “They probably just want an update on my progress after the new budget approval. I’ll send a few agents to help you with your mission, since we never actually got around to talking about business,” she says sheepishly.

“Well,” Sara drawls. “I think you’ve been pretty helpful despite that.”

  

0oo0oo0

 

So, they don’t really talk about the fact that they had sex on the captain’s desk in the middle of her work day, or what that means. It’s been a whole week and neither of them have said a word about it. To be fair, there had been an unusual number of anachronisms that week thanks to the Darhks and she knows that Sara has a personal vendetta against Damien, so she’s not exactly surprised that the captain has been distracted lately.

She’s told Andrea an abridged version of what had transpired between her and Sara. She thinks maybe she had seen some disappoint flash across the woman’s face but she can’t be too sure, since in the next moment Andrea was telling her to woman up and call Sara first.

She stares at her phone, her fingers hovering over Sara’s number. Andrea’s right she should call, since she was the one that had been giving Sara mixed signals with the whole  
Upswipe/Andrea situation. She knows that they just need to sit down and have a talk. Get everything out in the open, so that hopefully they could be together again.

Her phone rings just as she’s about to make the call and a familiar number flashes across the screen. She had deleted Rip’s number soon after firing him. She had no idea where he went off to and frankly hadn’t cared except, she kind of did. There were moments where she felt some pangs of guilt. In her memories, he was her mentor and friend for 5 years and maybe she still had some small amount of affection for the man.

Don’t her wrong, she was pissed as hell and hurt still. She would never forget when he called them, the AVA’s, replaceable, but there was a small part of her that still cared. A small part of her that regrets not letting him explain himself more, tell her what made her so special. She still had so many questions, that only Rip knew the answers to. Maybe she had been too hasty in booting him out of her life, but for whatever the reason, she decided to accept the call.

“Rip?”

“Agent Sharpe?”

“You called my number Rip, who else would it be?” She says flippantly.

Rip chuckles. “God, it’s so good to hear your voice again.”

“What do you want Rip?”

“I need your help.”

She sighs and despite everything between them she says, “Where and when?

Rip lets out a sigh of relief. “Central Ave, present day and now.”

“What?!That’s like ten minutes away…”

“I know. It’s just Damien. No idea where his daughter is. I don’t think he knows exactly where headquarters are, but he’s too damn close.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you, Ava.”

“I’m not doing this for you, I’m just doing my job.”

She hangs up before he can say another word. She changes out of her uniform and into street clothes. Not long after, she opens a portal and leaves quickly, not letting anyone know about this unauthorized mission and makes her way to where Rip is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can catch me on tumblr @KatrinaKenyon. Send me your thoughts, maybe throw me an Avalance prompt. Not making any promises, but I get a week off for thanksgiving, so I'll have a little free time soon.


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